Ahead of International Women’s Day, slum girls promise win at World Karate Meet

Kolkata: The slum girls of Kolkata celebrated International Women’s Day, a day in advance on Sunday, promising a win at the World Karate Meet, 2021, at Thailand.

Ayesha Noor, who won the gold in Bangkok in 2013 and 2015 and Monimala Halder, who won the silver medal in the last World Meet in Thailand in 2019, were in attendance.

“Our country is witnessing increasing incidents of rape and other crimes against women. Every girl must know how to defend herself,” Ms Halder said, and stressed the importance of sports like karate.

Karate World Champion Ayesha Noor said, “Girls are raped and burnt alive. They are sold and murdered.”

She invited the girls to come and join her free self defence karate training at the Ramlila Park here every Sunday and Thursday.

Ms Noor was honoured by the United States of America as the ‘Hero of Gender Equality’ in 2017 at a function held at the American Center in New Delhi.

This year her team from the slums of Kolkata will take part at the World Meet in Thailand. They have also sworn to win.

However, the girls are hamstrung by the fact that they do not have enough money to get passports.

Former sports minister Madan Mitra had sponsored this team so that they could participate in the international championship in 2015 and felicitated the team at the Writers Building. (UNI)